GENEVA

The UN experts on Monday criticized the US' decision to sanction three leading Palestinian human rights organizations, calling it a "direct attack on international justice."

The groups Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights were blacklisted under Executive Order 14203 as part of Washington’s campaign to counter the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) work on Israel.

"These three organisations are among the oldest and most effective and reliable in covering human rights violations and abuses by all parties in the occupied Palestinian territories – they have been represented in international venues and they are globally respected," the experts said in a statement.

The organizations have submitted material to the ICC documenting Israeli violations against civilians in Gaza.

"The new sanctions on these key Palestinian organisations pursuant to Executive Order 14203 come at a time when many countries have begun to voice strong condemnation of Israeli attacks and killings of civilians in Gaza, the targeting of journalists and medical personnel, and restrictions on food aid resulting in famine being declared in the besieged enclave," they said. "Sanctioning organisations for denouncing human rights violations is a blatant violation of the rights to freedom of expression and association."

They stressed that "sanctions and designations are being misused in an effort to silence pro-Palestine voices and hinder international accountability."

"These organisations deserve to be supported and funded precisely because of their work at this time on Israeli violations in Gaza and in the West Bank," the experts said. "It is disgraceful that the US has chosen to do the opposite."